The “No Taxation Without Sledding Representation” Edition

Rational Security

The Lawfare Institute

Foreignpolicy, Nationalsecurity, News, Government, Politics, Middleeast

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Scott sat down with his Lawfare colleagues Molly Reynolds and Kevin Frazier to discuss the week’s big national security news, including:

“Mike Drop (Almost).” While we are still two weeks away from having a new president, the 119th Congress is already underway. But there are signs of tension in the Republican majority controlling both chambers, with House Republicans (under pressure from former President Trump and adviser Elon Musk) having killed a leadership-negotiated compromise funding bill at the end of the last Congress and Speaker Mike Johnson just barely securing reelection by a single vote after some last minute wrangling within the Republican caucus. What do these recent events tell us about what we should expect over the next year?
“Will Be Mild.” The Jan. 6 that passed earlier this week went very differently than the one four years ago, with Congress peacefully recognizing former President Trump’s election back to the White House. How are the legacies of the Jan. 6 insurrection of 2021 winding to a close in 2025? And which seem likely to persist?
“Missed Connections.” Finland received an unwelcome Christmas present this year, after a major undersea telecommunications cable was damaged by the anchor of a suspected Russian shadow ship, in an act some believe was deliberate. And Taiwan rang in the New Year in similar fashion, with a major undersea cable getting damaged by a China-associated vessel. What is behind this set of attacks? And what tools do the affected states have to defend themselves?

In object lessons, Molly shared an excellent holiday tradition to keep in your back pocket for next year and all the years to come: a family time capsule. Scott shared his newly perfected cocktail recipe, a concoction he is calling The Little Palermo™ (see below). And Kevin went a bit darker with his recommendation of “End Times,” by Peter Turchin.

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The Little Palermo™ by Scott R. Anderson

1 oz. brandy

1 oz. cold brew concentrate

3/4 oz. Mr. Black coffee liqueur

3/4 oz. Averna

1/4 oz. rich demerara syrup

2 dashes chicory bitters

Shake vigorously over ice, double strain into a glass, express lemon oil over the top.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Molly, of the three of us, you're the other one stuck in a snowstorm with young children at home.
0:05.8	You're surviving, hopefully. You haven't been eaten alive by your four or five-year-old so far?
0:10.4	Nope, still all in one piece. No wounds yet. We'll see. I'm concerned about tomorrow.
0:23.9	If we have a third snow day, I may lose it. I'm less concerned about a whole day and more concerned about the possibility of a delay,
0:30.9	which is just, just really like messes with the whole day. Yeah. Have we engaged in any sledding?
0:37.8	I don't know the ages of your respective kids.
0:40.4	How much sledding?
0:41.4	What's the vibe like?
0:42.9	Are the folks sharing sleds?
0:45.3	Have anyone been run over?
0:46.8	How's it going?
0:47.8	So my kid did a little sledding.
0:50.2	The problem is that it is, at least today, it is not pleasant outside.
0:55.6	Like, it's very sunny, but it's cold and it's windy.
0:58.0	So it's not one of those snowstorms where, like, it snowed, and then the next day is, like, you know, just below freezing and it's, like, nice for spending a long time outside.
1:07.4	It's actually, like, quite unpleasant.
1:09.1	It's not great, like like snowman's snow. So
1:11.5	not ideal on those dimensions. If climate change makes snow in D.C. more regular,
1:20.4	instead of a congressional baseball game, could we have a congressional snowball fight?
1:25.2	So I will say that an ongoing source of drama in this city is whether children are permitted to access the west front of the capital for sledding purposes.
1:40.2	For a long time, they were like technically not supposed to, and it was like sort of lightly enforced.
1:45.0	And then Eleanor Holmes Norton, our non-voting delegate, fought to like get the city's children, actual access to the west front.
	...

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